Why I Don't Understand Why People Call This Place So Liberal

[debka_notion]

As I was getting my lunch today, Steve comes over to me, takes a look at my shirt, which says "Brandeis University Conservative Organization" on the front and "Hebrew is Gender Specific, BUCO is not" on the back, and says to me "You know, we have a shirt like that for BOO too, only on the back it says 'G-d doesn't hate us'". (BOO is the Brandeis Orthodox Organization.) I tried to joke back something, but I was rather offended. It isn't like this is the first time he's said something offensive to me either: last time it was a whole string of bigotted comments about Indians, Pakistanis, Muslims, Asians and other immigrants. I'm getting to the point where I really want to do something about it, but I'm not really sure what to do. File some sort of complaint to the student senate about religious persecution? It seems a bit ridiculous here, but I'm not sure what else to call this one. Talk to the Orthodox rabbi here? I don't know what he'd do... Ideas?

Comments

[jessebeller.livejournal.com]

where to begin

if your problem is with one particular steve, id take doodah's advice and let him leave and not worry about him any longer. talking to your rabbi is another good way to address the problem.

if, on the other hand, youre frustrated with what you see as more endemic problem, id write a paper about it. diagnose the problem, describe its ill effects, theorize a little bit. hell, make it a manifesto even; manifestoes are fun and cathartic, and, if written clearly and concisely, can be easily employed in future arguments. you know, its just laying out how you feel about something. be sure to use grand language.

i do think of brandeis as one of the most liberal-as-a-dirty-word campuses in the country. 'liberal' is often used as a catchall for progressive/leftist thought, but that isnt really what it means. i guess it was phil ochs had a great song called 'love me im a liberal.' (http://www.lyricscrawler.com/song/65145.html) you ever see the original stepford wives? near the end when the neighborhood gossip says that a black couple is moving to stepford and why not? its the most liberal town in connecticut, after all. ha! perfect. my own relationship with liberalism is somewhat conflicted, certainly it was revered by both my parents and most all the adults i grew up around, but jack kennedys liberalism is as dead as he is, and that may not be such a bad thing. i just think its interesting how people often use 'liberal' to mean more liberal than liberal means.

anyhow, seems to me your issue is with bigotry and malice, and to that i can only wish you luck. there are some people out there who seriously need some sense smacked into them. when jon stewart had his big hurah on crossfire (http://homepage.mac.com/duffyb/nobush/iMovieTheater231.html) some folk i know where making fun of him for hammering the old 'play nice' button, and i dont think the object should be that old bourgeois give-anything-but-offense ideal, but christ, its hard to have any kind of meaningful exchange without civil participants.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

It is something I've seen as an endemic sort of problem in the Jewish community. No matter where I identify myself, someone hates me for it. Maybe I'll babble about it on LJ over break. A manifesto though? Seems a tad intimidating to write. And what would I do with it afterwards? Tape it up on walls around campus?

[jessebeller.livejournal.com]

this is interesting. ive long harped about jewish xenophobia, but while never explicitly as directed against other jews, it is one of the recurring manifestations, isnt it? i think of monty python's life of brian or oscar wilde's salome or that joke about the jew stranded on the island who builds himself a city, and as hes showing the synagogue to his rescuers, they ask about the synagogue they see out the window, to which he remarks 'thats the shul i would never go in to.'

as for the manifesto, youre the one whos writing it, youre the one who gets to be intimidating. just declare what youre writing about and write about it in absolutist and judgmental terms. the catharsis will be in the writing, not in the taping up. once its written you should post it on livejournal or not. id like to read it, but really, manifestos arent about who reads them.